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Does this BBC article seem biased against atheism?

Bad Lieutenant

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Bad Lieutenant
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Britain is in many ways a secular state, and traditional beliefs and practices have collapsed, but perhaps the UK's national culture is still more religious than we often notice. Trying to take all the religion out of it would be not so much like taking the raisins out of a fruitcake as like taking the chocolate out of a chocolate cake.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17112688


It seems that way to me. Makes me :mad: :mad: :(
 
It's from their magazine section, which means it's somebody's personal opinion.
Stephen Tomkins is the author of A Short History of Christianity.
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So of course he's biased.
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17112688


It seems that way to me. Makes me :mad: :mad: :(
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That is depressingly 21st century.

Firstly its not biased against atheism. Its about as close to a disinterested anthropological study as you can get while still being readable.

Secondly why do you care? In practical terms it doesn't matter one way or the other if any given article has a slight anti-atheist bias. Unless of course you are trying to grab some victim status. Very popular these days I understand.
 
3point14 said:
I would think it's more akin to taking the sawdust out of sausages.
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You may not be aware of this but a pretty solid chunk of Britain's older listed buildings are religious in nature. Our middle ages illuminated books (on display at the British library at the moment if you can get beyond the sawdust) tend to a mix of military manuals and religious stuff. National gallery? Quite a collection of religious works. A fair chunk of our recorded middle ages history is priory records.

All sawdust of course.
 
Limbo said:
Don't give in to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to the Dark-side of the etc.
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I'm not really that Ang Lee. Just for a minute there I saw a shade of claret is all.

I think it's because this comes on top of our head of state's recent speech where she harps on about how fantastic the CofE and religion in general is. It was also pointed out the other day that we're one of a very select few country's, along withthe Islamic Republic of Iran, for example, who reserve seats in government for clergy - lots of seats. :boggled:
 
sophia8 said:
It's from their magazine section, which means it's somebody's personal opinion....
So of course he's biased.
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I doubt the BBC editors would admit to publishing a biased piece. Somebody must have thought it captured the zeitgeist or something...maybe they like jibing with HRH...and maybe there's institutionalised Christianity at the BBC. Unfortunately, after that "belief in God and Darwinian evolutionary theory are fully compatible" decumentary debacle, aired during the Darwin 200 celebrations, I suspect the latter.
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
I doubt the BBC editors would admit to publishing a biased piece. Somebody must have thought it captured the zeitgeist or something...maybe they like jibing with HRH...
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Or maybe you are biased.

and maybe there's institutionalised Christianity at the BBC. Unfortunately, after that "belief in God and Darwinian evolutionary theory are fully compatible" decumentary debacle, aired during the Darwin 200 celebrations, I suspect the latter.
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Laughable. The BBC's head of religious affairs is Aaqil Ahmed who is a Muslim (if not a very good one). General opinion of him isn't very high mind. Other than that the BBC has carefully ghettoised religion to thought for the day and the daily service over on long-wave. For the most part the BBC tends towards a sort of creaking secularism overlaying a culture of atheism. If you still think of them as institutionally christian it is probably best you stay away from outside contact altogether so you don't catch teh jesus.
 
geni said:
The BBC's head of religious affairs is Aaqil Ahmed who is a Muslim (if not a very good one).
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Al-Kitab (people of the book (ie. Jews and Christians)) are far preferred by Muslims to filthy Kufr atheists, didn't you know.
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
Al-Kitab (people of the book (ie. Jews and Christians)) are far preferred by Muslims to filthy Kufr atheists, didn't you know.
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Well yes so you lack a comprehensive understanding of the people of the book concept. Asside from that did you have any intention of attempting to support your position?
 
geni said:
You may not be aware of this but a pretty solid chunk of Britain's older listed buildings are religious in nature. Our middle ages illuminated books (on display at the British library at the moment if you can get beyond the sawdust) tend to a mix of military manuals and religious stuff. National gallery? Quite a collection of religious works. A fair chunk of our recorded middle ages history is priory records.

All sawdust of course.
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Losing the religions would not necessitate tearing down buildings, burning books and so forth. People stopped worshipping Jupiter and Apollo centuries ago, but the Pantheon is still standing.
 
Avery Dashwood said:
Losing the religions would not necessitate tearing down buildings, burning books and so forth. People stopped worshipping Jupiter and Apollo centuries ago, but the Pantheon is still standing.
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Yes but we wouldn't generally try and relegate those things to the equivalent of sawdust in sausages.
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
That the article is biased? You could start by looking at the picture they used.
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Trying to practice Kremlinology on BBC web images is slightly dicey as they have a tendency to use whatever comes first on a Getty or AP image search.
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
Al-Kitab (people of the book (ie. Jews and Christians)) are far preferred by Muslims to filthy Kufr atheists, didn't you know.
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In theory. In practice, it's a lot easier to fulfill your religious observance as an atheist in a Muslim country without being persecuted for it than to practice as a Jew or a Christian.
 
As for the Queen, she is head of the C of E so of course she will be in favour of it.
We also have an official State Religion so fo course it is involved in the State.

How didn't you notice?
 
Captain_Swoop said:
As for the Queen, she is head of the C of E so of course she will be in favour of it.
We also have an official State Religion so fo course it is involved in the State.

How didn't you notice?
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The queen doesn't have a choice about being the head of the CofE - because her ancesters though it best to keep control of the unweildy monster the monarch automatically has the title. That doesn't mean she has to sing it's praises - a "it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it" approach would be just as understandable (moreso given the atheism of the vast majority of her subjects).

The official state religion part is also a hangover from the days when brits actually believed in god and so should obviously be downplayed, ignored and disestablished ASAP in line with the democratic state.

That course of action would be understandable - the UK isn't a very religious country at all these.

How didn't you notice?
 
Bad Lieutenant said:
The queen doesn't have a choice about being the head of the CofE - because her ancesters though it best to keep control of the unweildy monster the monarch automatically has the title. That doesn't mean she has to sing it's praises - a "it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it" approach would be just as understandable (moreso given the atheism of the vast majority of her subjects).
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Vast majority? Unlikely.

The official state religion part is also a hangover from the days when brits actually believed in god and so should obviously be downplayed, ignored and disestablished ASAP in line with the democratic state.
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We are however a liberal democracy which means not ignoring minorities.


That course of action would be understandable - the UK isn't a very religious country at all these.
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Your understanding of constitutional matters also appears limited.
 
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